Rock Tech Lithium: Bringing Historical Resources up to Scratch

Rock Tech Lithium (TSX-V:RCK, FSE:RJIA) is a Canadian based junior exploration company, with market capitalization of C$3 million. The company is focused on the acquisition and development of high quality lithium properties that are at various stages of development, which have been the subject of prior work programs or contain historic resources that can be brought into modern day NI 43-101 standards.

The company currently holds a 100% interest in two such properties; the Georgia Lake Lithium Project, located in northwest Ontario, Canada and the Kapiwak Lithium Project, located in northwest Quebec. In addition to these key/core assets, Rock Tech also holds 100% interest in a titanium-iron-vanadium asset, near Saint Urbain,  Quebec, and the Sibley Basin Project in north west Ontario, which contains mineralization of nickel, copper, platinum group of elements and uranium. As well as these properties, Rock Tech also possesses in-house background to process battery grade lithium carbonate and a chlorination process to produce lithium metal, a unique attribute for junior exploration companies in the lithium sector.

Rock Tech’s key asset, and the one where the majority of near term focus is on, is the Georgia Lake Lithium Project in northwest Ontario. The project consists of 64 mining claims and 61 mining leases over three claim blocks, encompassing 11,481 hectares in the Thunder Bay Mining District. The Nama Creek claim block, which contains a previously developed 153 meter mining shaft with four compartments, was poised to go into production in the late 1950s.

The principal means of access to the Georgia Lake Project is Ontario Provincial Highway No. 11.  Additionally, the Georgia Lake property is located in fairly close proximity to a deep lake port on Lake Superior.  There are numerous gravel and tertiary bush roads that provide access to all of the claim groups. The property also has excellent infrastructure in place, with access to power via Hydro Ontario transmission lines.

The property has been the subject of historical exploration, seeing 33,000 metres of drilling in over 200 drill holes in the 1950s, which resulted in a historical resource estimate of 9.8 million tons, at a grade of 1.18% lithium oxide.  Rock Tech geologists have compiled the historic data and have developed a drill program that proposes 11,300 metres of drilling over 60 targets.

In 2009 Rock Tech undertook two field programs on the property consisting of 52 surface samples, and one drill program, beginning the process of bringing historical resource estimates up to NI 43-101 standards. The initial field exploration program discovered an average grade of 2.12% lithium oxide, with grades as high as 3.34%. In addition it indicated grades as high as 462 grams per ton (g/t) of beryllium, 210g/t of niobium, 0.12% rubidium, and 190g/t of tantalum. The second field program saw an average grade of 1.73% lithium oxide, with grades as high as 7.22%. In addition it found grades as high as 3.54% beryllium, 3,870g/t of cesium and 1,490g/t of rubidium. The drill program intersected a grade of 1.62% lithium oxide over 10.5 metres, and 1.54% lithium oxide over 8.9 metres. It also discovered grades as high as 6,900g/t of cesium, 3,956g/t of rubidium, 129.6g/t of beryllium, and 111.2g/t of niobium.

Rock Tech will continue to build on this data through exploration and development drilling, with the objective of bringing the historical data to NI 43-101 standards by the end of the year. During the year, the company also intends to explore the potential extension of known pegmatite dykes at the site, and further explore the potential for rare metals as shown in 2009 exploration results.

The Kapiwak Lithium Project in northwest Quebec, while not having historical resource estimates in place like the Georgia Lake property, borders on Lithium One’s James Bay lithium discovery to the north (called the Cyr Lithium Project).  Rock Tech management believes the Cyr Lithium Project is of significant size, with pegmatite dykes extending into its property.  The region has been subject to intensive exploration with other companies making lithium and rare metals discoveries – Dios Exploration/Sirios Resources project to the south and First Gold’s project to the southeast of Rock Tech’s Kapiwak property. These discoveries, along with the results of its 2009 exploration program, provide Rock Tech with the indication there is potential for a new lithium and rare metals discovery on the property through further exploration work.

The Kapiwak lithium property is comprised of 123 claims covering 6,433 hectares in the James Bay area in northwest Quebec. The property is accessible by the Matagmi - Radisson James Bay Highway, and is located 380 kilometres to the north of the town of Matagmi, Quebec.  The Eastmain River runs about 3 kilometres to the north of the property in an east to west direction. Other areas of the property are accessible through gravel roads, and have access to Hydro Quebec power lines.  As well as power, water, food, lodging and fuel services are all readily available at a nearby camp operated by the James Bay Economic Development Group.

In August 2009, the company carried out preliminary field exploration work at the Kapiwak Lithium Project, consisting of reconnaissance geological surveying to locate pegmatite outcrops (extremely coarse granite often rich in rare metals, including lithium), prospecting, sampling and assaying.  Results of the chemical assays from this field program indicated an average grade of 1.47% lithium oxide, with grades ranging from 0.89% to 2.90%. In addition to this, the results also showed anomalous values of other rare metals, including beryllium, niobium and tantalum. Rock Tech’s objective for 2010 is to conduct field geological work which will include prospecting, sampling and mapping.  Based on the results of the planned geological work, Rock Tech suggests a trenching, geophysical survey and drill program will follow.

Rock Tech’s total exploration expenditures for the 2009 fiscal year, covering all its projects, were C$311,808. The first quarter of 2010 saw total exploration expenditures for the company of C$18,105. A breakdown of this shows that for 2009, exploration expenditures totalled C$146,234 for the Georgia Lake Property, and C$8,970 at the James Bay Project. The first quarter of this year saw exploration expenditures at Georgia Lake of C$17,805, although no exploration was conducted in the quarter at the Kapiwak property.  Rock Tech’s management believe that it has sufficient funds to maintain the company, although do note it will become necessary to raise additional funds to complete further exploration of its properties. If this is the case, management have suggested they would consider raising additional funds from a public offering, a private placement or through loans.

With exploration at its two key lithium projects looking promising and an already established historical resource estimate at Georgia Lake, Rock Tech’s portfolio of assets merit attention and interest. If and when this historical data can be converted to a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, possibly by the end of the year, Rock Tech will have taken another significant step towards to a development ambition.